Friday, October 31, 2008

Errey: "Who taught him that? We know who taught him that. It was the MASTER! Ulf Samuellsson."

Errey: "He waited almost a week to make that shot." (Was he referring to Bryzgalov's absence from the lineup or the Penguins' seeming complete unwillingness to shoot the puck?)

Recap: Terrible period. No energy, no passion, no puck support, no forecheck. 15 shots in 5 periods now. That's 3 a period. When you're having as much trouble generating offense as the Pens have been, you can't pass up shots. On the plus side, the Pens are playing excellent team defense. They give up a lot of shots, but not a lot of good scoring chances. The good scoring chances they do give up are shut down by incredible play from both goaltenders. The offense will come. What's impressive to me is playing such incredible D without the two best defenders.

2nd Period:Why are the Coyotes playing the Ghostbusters theme song over the arena PA?

Recap: That was a much better period in everything but the goal count (unfortunately, that's all that counts). The Pens played like you would expect them to against a weaker opponent like the Coyotes. Unfortunately, lackadaisacal clearing attempts during the first PP and a bad bounce on the second PP cost the Pens. I wasn't particularly fond of either call that put the Pens on the PK, but they'll just have to get it back. You have the feeling right now that if they can keep their level of play up, they will ultimately win out. The Pens had more shots that period than they did in the 5 periods of hockey before that. Intermission quote from Errey: "The Penguins, Steiggy, gotta put the pumpkin in the basket!"

Game. 4-1 YotesRecap: All-around a pretty miserable road trip for the Pens. They need to try to get a point in St. Louis on Saturday night and then just get home and regroup. There's not much to say about tonight. Pretty miserable to watch Phoenix thoroughly beat your favorite team, but they simply outworked the Penguins. The officiating was lacking, but the Pens didn't deserve to win anyway, so there's nothing to complain about. Goligoski's having a tough stretch, but he's learning through trial by fire right now. He'll cost you now, but be better for it later on. Any possible injury to Sid is a big loss (obviously). I'm not sure they're in a position right now to carry on without him as they did last season. To keep it in perspective though, the Pens hovered around .500 all the way through to Thanksgiving last season, before turning the season around. Even Detroit lost 7 in a row last season. On the plus side, Satan scored an amazing goal (and is on pace for 30-40 goals), Letang had a brilliant defensive play against Boedker, and Malkin tried to singlehandedly win the game for the Pens, offensively and defensively. Unfortunately for the Pens right now, Letang and Malkin aren't enough to carry them to victory.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Hey all. My name's Ryan and I (and possibly our friend Nick) will be doing the posts for the next two games while Keith is in Philly, presumably celebrating the Phillies' World Series title....or just visiting friends, whatever. (Props to Philly by the way. This win only leaves them 7 major sports titles behind our fair city. Then again, who needs championships when you have murders)

Pens vs. Coyotes

The game will be in HD tonight on FSN. Both teams are going with their starters, so Fleury will be in net against Ilya Bryzgalov. The Pens juggled their lines today and will roll with these tonight:

Talbot is still out with an undisclosed injury. Dupuis was hit by a shot in practice and his status is up in the air. The Pens have recalled Chris Minard from the Baby Pens, so maybe not a great sign for Dupuis. Minard, by the way, has 7 goals and 6 assists in 7 games to lead Wilkes-Barre and is a plus 9.

Some numbers for the game tonight:Malkin is second in the NHL in points with 15Crosby is fifth with 13Fleury is fourth in save percentage at .933 and sixth in goals against at 2.17Olli Jokinen leads the Coyotes with 7 points (1 goal)Shane Doan leads the Coyotes with 4 goals; Mikkel Boedker and Peter Mueller are the only other Coyotes with more than 1, with 3 eachThe Pens are 5th on the PK and 7th on the PPThe Coyotes are 22nd on the PK and 26th on the PP (Phoenix is also worst in the league on the PK on home ice at just 63.6%)Phoenix is worst in the league at faceoffs as a team winning only 41.6% of the timeThe Pens are, shockingly, 10th at 50.8%

ThoughtsThis game seems like a solid matchup for the Pens. Phoenix has struggled offensively recently, as well. The new lines appear to give substantially more balance to the lineup. After struggling to put up 11 shots against San Jose (did that game remind anyone else of the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals last year?), the Pens will be in a shooting mindset (i hope). The Coyotoes D took a shot when they dealt Ballard and Boynton to Florida in the Olli Jokinen deal. The Pens should be able to put pucks on net and score some goals tonight. The Coyotes, offensively, are very young with four players being 20 or younger. The talented group of young guns includes 18 year old Mikkel Boedker, 19 year old Kyle Turris, 20 year old Peter Mueller and 20 year old Viktor Tikhonov. That last name should ring a bell with long time hockey fans (or anyone who's seen the movie "Miracle"); Viktor is the namesake of his grandfather, the legendary Soviet Red Army coach who was the victim of Herb Brooks and the Miracle on Ice 1980 US Olympic team. The Pens are in a good position to end their losing ways tonight. Oh yeah, and I guarantee Daniel Carcillo fights Paul Bissonnette, Eric Godard, or both tonight. Also watch out for Kurt Sauer and Brian McGrattan in the combat arena.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Steiggy: "Students love pizza, we know that, so you couldn't pick a better food to take to them...they don't get enough of that, right Bob?"Errey: "You can never get enough!"

Errey: "There's Max Talbot sporting some facial hair. He figures that fu-manchu is going to help him out a little bit [...]"Steiggy: "Maybe he's like Samson, Bob. If you cut his hair..."Errey: "I think that's what he's thinking!"

"What's so amazing about that, Steiggy? That Mario's coaching? He should be! He knows everything...more...more than the rest of us! Get out there and disperse that...talent. That wealth of knowledge!"

Saturday, October 18, 2008

"He fires this hockey club up, Max Talbot. He's sporting some facial hair. He said, 'I'm gonna turn this thing around.' He doesn't like the start he's gotten off to. So...you know...Max likes beards. He likes fu-manchu's, and he can grow a 'stache with the best of the them. He can grow it in a day or two!"

Little known fact: Curtis Joseph is still an NHL goaltender...

"I hope his friends by their own tickets, because that would be a costly season for Mr. Thomas."

"He's so good at swooping. The big pterodactyl is good with the angles."

"We gotta go back to that picture because...I mean, they stuck a bowl on him and cut his hair. Did you see that bowl cut?!?!? That was oneosfsfsfg...I mean...you know, I mean, I don't have the greatest hair, Steiggy, but uh, that was...that was a tough looking cut!"

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Errey: "Steiggy, I won't take that as a slight by the way...greatest left wing ever..."Steiggy: "Well you're my favorite left wing ever!"Errey: "Aww, thanks Steiggy."Steiggy: "You and Bourquey. I gotta include him too."